Venous hypertension and hemorrhoids

[GomerPyle]

Hey all,

There was a practice question about venous hypertension relating to hemorrhoids.

I was wondering what the relationship is between the two? I understand anorectal varicies as being caused by portal hypertension....so are hemorrhoids different? How would venous hypertension lead to hemorrhoids because on wiki it says its not made up of arteries or veins, but hemorrhoids are made up sinusoids, connective tissue, smooth muscle?

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[slz1900]

The sinusoids in hemorrhoids are supplied by rectal arteries and drained by rectal veins, so venous congestion will cause them to become dilated. Hemorrhoids aren't necessarily related to portal HTN. Ext. hemorrhoids wouldn't be related to portal HTN, for instance. Internal doesn't have to be, but for step purposes they will probably be related to portal HTN.

Anorectal varices techincally just means anorectal venous dilation. It looks like it usually refers more to venous dilation due to portal HTN, although it doesn't have to be caused by that. It is probably safe to more or less equate anorectal varices with internal hemorrhoids, since one will almost always accompany the other (on step).